1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a system and method of simultaneous data collection and analysis of multiple attribute ratings for the purposes of research and analysis.
2. Background Description
Market research is an important business tool, which permits manufacturers, retailers, financial institutions, and others to cost-effectively target their marketing and sales activities and efficiently reach potential customers. These organizations rely heavily on market data in planning new products, sales strategies and promotions, and when making a variety of other sales and marketing related business decisions.
In the past, marketing data has been collected in several ways. Typically, market research firms are employed to collect data using surveys, questionnaires, and other techniques. Typical surveys and questionnaires are a sequence of various question types. These questions types may be functionally defined as:                a) Open-ended questions whereby a respondent can write or type their response in a textual fashion in the language of their choice.        b) Single-choice questions whereby a respondent must choose one answer choice out of a set of pre-determined choices.        c) Multiple-choice questions whereby a respondent may choose zero, one, or more answer choices out of a set of pre-determined choices.        d) Grid questions whereby a respondent must choose one answer choice out of a set of pre-determined choices, the set being displayed in a series of rows or columns in conjunction with similar questions.        
A typical implementation of a single-choice or grid question is to collect rating data for a respondent's perception of a concept attribute. The concept may be a textual description of a product or service, or a graphical display e.g. company logo, new product physical design. A question may be presented to the respondent e.g. “How do you feel about the following concept?” An instruction may be presented to the respondent e.g. “Please select an answer for the attribute.” A set of pre-determined rating choices authored by the market research company is then presented to the respondent e.g.                a) “1—The product functions very poorly”        b) “2—The product functions somewhat poorly”        c) “3—The product functions as expected”        d) “4—The product functions somewhat better than expected”        e) “5—The product functions much better than expected”        
Each pre-determined response is associated with a data point which is typically an integer representing the value of the response. The data point may then be stored in a database or computer memory for use in research and analysis.
This technique of presenting single-choice and grid questions has several drawbacks. First, it does not support a mechanism for the respondent to provide a response which might lie between the pre-determined choices e.g. “The product functions a little better than expected but not quite somewhat better than expected.” From the respondent's perspective he or she would prefer to submit a data point of 3.5 corresponding to his or her true rating intent.
Furthermore, this technique does not permit a respondent to simultaneously rate multiple attributes due to the sequenced nature of a questionnaire. First, the respondent must consider and answer the question for one attribute. Secondly, the respondent must consider and answer the question for another attribute. This sequential process inherently limits the respondent's ability to consider and rate each attribute simultaneously thereby eliminating the potential for the respondent to consider a relationship between the two attributes. The collection and evaluation of these relationships may be critical to the research and analysis of the project as well as subsequent recommendations and strategies.
Moreover, current analysis and reporting techniques for the evaluation of data points and attribute relationships collected from a respondent or set of respondents known as a sample, from single-choice and grid questions do not provide a real-time method for graphical representation of the data. Typically a researcher must engage a data analyst to perform complex data segmentation commonly referred to as cross-tabs, whereby a new data subset may be analyzed. This process is costly and time-intensive.